Is it true that Nabokov called Hemingway and Conrad “writers of books for boys”?

5 thoughts on “Is it true that Nabokov called Hemingway and Conrad “writers of books for boys”?”

1. Reblogged this on psychosputnik.

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2. Where would literature be without the boy in the man?

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3. I can’t think of a more juvenile (in the best of senses) novel than Lolita.

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   1. dirty old prevert? The fantasy of an overly domesticated old man?

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      1. I thought to encourage conversation by tossing in a little tongue-in-cheek (above), but nothing happened.
         Coincidentally, after the evening I entered that, I listened to a radio program on Nabokov which more or less centered on Lolita. It was very interesting. What I took away from the conversations in the program was that Nabokov considered the story to be the service – the silverware, china, linens, crystalware and that the writing was the dinner. How the words were assembled together. Ruth Bader Ginsberg was quoted as saying that in taking his class Nabokov taught her how to read. The students at Cornell, where he taught a class, called the course dirty European literature because of his choice of reading materials.

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